If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves!

Monday, May 10, 2010

It Is My Privilege

I know that I am a day late with this post, but I figure better late than never.

Back in 1974 after my dad had his first bout with cancer, he sent me a thank you card after he got out of the hospital. One of the things he said was "When you decide to have a family, nobody gives you an instruction book on how to raise good kids". I still think about that from time to time because it is so true.

My husband and I were very lucky to have two sets of wonderful parents to give us excellent examples of how to be good parents. We both had great childhoods. We lived in neighborhoods that had tons of kids who had parents that were just like ours. Everyone looked out for everyone else. We didn't get away with much because someones parent was always watching. We all had chores and you couldn't go outside with your friends until your chores were done. But, once you got outside, you could stay out forever or at least until dinner. My husband and I lived in the same neighborhood for a short time. He moved when I was a baby and he was three, so we didn't officially meet until 16 years later.

Fast forward to December 26, 1974 at 4:34 a.m. The most beautiful little girl is born. She has a head full of dark brown hair and big brown eyes and looks just like her dad. She turns out to be just about the perfect child. She is rarely any trouble. She does well in school and is our athlete. To this day, she is our athlete. She is a runner and has been since middle school. She just ran the Indy mini marathon on Saturday. She has even run the Boston marathon. She is an amazing teacher, an excellent photographer and married to a great guy.

January 6, 1981 we are devastated by a miscarriage at 12 weeks. We had just told our daughter two days before that she was going to be a big sister. Because everything about this pregnancy was so different from all my other pregnancies, I always wonder if that might have been our boy. One day, I'll find out. I'm looking forward to that.

May 1, 1983 they start coming in two's. Holy cow it's twins! Once again, beautiful, dark hair, dark eyes, girl, but there are two of them. These two gave us a run for our money. What one didn't think of, the other did. They used to scale the grates on the french doors. These two are a little sneaky when they get older. Nothing awful, but they kept us on our toes. Lucky for us, they turned out great. Both married to wonderful guys and one of them gave us our three grandkids.

September 2, 1987, here we go again. Beautiful baby girl, dark hair and dark eyes. She is perfect. She is the most easy going baby ever. She gets into lots of mischief. She is the one who knocked herself out throwing a very rare tantrum. She is the one who had to have plastic surgery after a dog bite. Stitches, sprains, this one did it all. She is our volleyball player. She is also the one who will graduate in December and follow in her big sisters footsteps and become a teacher.

May 21, 2006 and October 28, 2008, two beautiful baby girls with dark hair and dark eyes are born. The difference here is that they are my granddaughters. What an experience this is. They are perfect and I really mean that. They are funny and so smart. Like I said, perfect!

April 13, 2010 and it's a beautiful baby with dark hair and dark eyes, but what is this? Oh my goodness, it's a boy! The first one in the family in 25 years. He'll be a month old this week and believe it or not, he is perfect.

I have been a mom for 35 years and a grandma for four years. I have come full circle from babies to grown children to babies again. I love motherhood. I love grandmotherhood. I'm doing the best I can with both. I know that I have made mistakes. In spite of that fact, I have really good kids. They are sweet, loving, caring, funny and creative girls. I am proud of them. They make me very happy. I love them, pure and simple. They are truly the best kids ever.

It is my privilege to be their mom. It is my privilege to be their grandma.

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

p.s. Blogger is doing it to me again! It is refusing to keep my paragraphs. This is my third try. Hopefully, they'll be there, but if they aren't you'll know I tried.

9 comments:

Beautiful Nancy! My daughter also had a miscarriage, in between her girls and often says she thinks it was her boy. The picture of you and your girls is so lovely. Looks like you had a special Mothers Day too!

I LOVE your life Nancy! You grew up like I did. We played til dark and everyone watched out for one another and chores got done first! Oh, the good ole' days...You have the most precious family and all so loving. You have the right to be proud of your accomplishments! And to have teachers in the family is awesome! And your 3 geese are more than adorable!

What beautiful words about your beautiful family. I loved being on your journey with you. We had similar childhoods... maybe we all did back then... with the discipline and playing and lots of kids and lots of freedom to run and play. TIME has blessed you, my dear friend. But YOU have blessed those around you with your sweetness, love, care, fun and creativity. Your girls and your grandchildren have the perfect model and mentor! Audrey had a miscarriage, too... in-between her 3rd and 4th boys... and she thinks that baby was her baby girl. But she knows that little angel "moved over" to bring her Benjamin and Henry. Sometimes in the night I think of that little angel and pray to "her". Thanks for this wonderful post!